Re:MARK

Re:MARK (2002: by Golan Levin and Zachary Lieberman, with production support from the Ars Electronica Futurelab) presents the fiction that speech casts visible shadows. With the help of voice analysis technology, motion sensing, and real-time computer animation, this interactive installation for two participants converts speech into whimsically animated letters and shapes that appear to float upwards from the shadow of the speaker's head. Visitors can also manipulate these forms directly, using the shadow of their own body. When a phoneme is recognized by the software with sufficient confidence, it is spelled out on the installation's display. If the visitor's utterance is not recognized by the software, an abstract shape is generated instead, whose form is tightly coupled to the speaker's vocal timbre. The result is a playful illusion in which visitors become actors in a shadow world of reactive cartoon language.

The following 1'55" video shows brief encounters with the Re:MARK installation at the Ars Electronica Center, September 2002 in Linz, Austria. The video is available at YouTube, Vimeo, and in Quicktime format at the bottom of this page.

AcknowledgementsRe:MARK was a commission of the Ars Electronica Museum of the Future and was developed by Tmema (Golan Levin + Zachary Lieberman) in collaboration with the Ars Electronica Futurelab. The project was made possible within the framework of the Futurelab's Artist-In-Residence Program, generously sponsored by Siemens.